Abia PDP: Okey Ahiwe Trounces Okey Igwe at the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has described the appeal filed by the erstwhile deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Abia State, Hon Okey Igwe, seeking to disqualify Dr Jasper Uche as the substantive deputy governorship candidate of the PDP at the last governorship election as a “wild goose chase” lacking in merit.

Recall that Hon Okey Igwe was the running mate to the late Prof Uche Ikonne but was replaced with Dr Uche Jasper after the unfortunate demise of Ikonne and the emergence of Chief Okey Ahiwe as the new governorship candidate of the party.

Aggrieved by the substitution, Okey Igwe headed to the court to seek its intervention in the hope that the court would sustain his status as running mate.

But in what is now an end to what may be termed as ‘the battle of the Okeys’, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Okey Igwe’s appeal while upholding the right of the PDP and Chief Okey Ahiwe to choose a running mate of their choice going into the election.

Consequently, Okey Igwe was ordered to pay the sum of N200,000 as cost to each of the respondents in the suit.

In its reaction, Abia PDP in a statement signed by its vice chairman and acting state publicity secretary, Elder Abraham Amah, congratulated Chief Okey Ahiwe and Dr Jasper Uche and extended its olive branch to its “estranged brother” Okey Igwe, saying its doors are still open for him to return to the party.